Operators such as ranchers and farmers must often isolate one farm animal from a herd of farm animals for treatment such as vaccination, tagging, transport or other reasons, and is commonly required with a newborn calf shortly after birth and periodically afterwards. However, attempts to isolate the calf from the mother cow can be difficult and highly dangerous for the rancher due to the mother cow's natural instinct to protect her calf. The large mother cows can and do react aggressively, and can attack an operator that attempts to approach and isolate or interact with the calf.
Such task is particularly difficult and dangerous in large open areas. Therefore a conventional technique for isolating a calf from its mother is to locate the animals in a pen or fenced area, and for the operator to isolate the calf by driving the mother cow outside the fenced area. However, this process is not only time consuming but also exposes the unprotected operator to attack by the mother cow.
A number of catch-carrier devices have been developed to handle animals for treatment. In one category there are cage-like enclosures that are either towed behind a vehicle or are raised and moved by a tractor or like device. Some of these devices require that the cage be lowered over an animal to trap it, such as in U.S. Pat. Nos. 7,685,970 and 6,964,245, or to drive the animal into the cage through a side gate, such as U.S. Pat. Nos. 7,389,746 and 5,372,092.
These prior art devices suffer from numerous disadvantages. None are designed to be moved by an operator alone from inside the cage, nor for the operator (while inside the cage) to approach a calf unseen so as to scoop the calf into the cage, nor to isolate a calf from the mother's view while the operator treats the calf, nor to manually transport the calf to another location while the mother can see the calf but not the operator.
In another category there are portable animal carriers that are either wheeled by the operator or slide on the ground, such as U.S. Pat. Nos. 5,090,368 and 4,567,853. In addition to suffering substantially the same disadvantages as the earlier noted prior art devices, none of these devices function to protect the operator from the herd, nor cage the calf but merely cradle the calf during transport, nor can the transported calf be hidden from view of its mother or the herd.
What is therefore desired is a an operator propelled device that facilitates the process of trapping and isolating an animal from a herd in a safer and more effective manner, and which overcomes the limitations and disadvantages of existing processes and devices. Preferrably the device should form a protective enclosure for the operator to prevent injury from the herd, and should conceal the operator from view as the operator moves the device toward the animal. The operator should be able to trap the animal within the device so as to isolate it from the herd, and be able to treat the animal within the device unseen by the herd. The device should have a basket arrangement for holding the animal and preventing its escape from the device while the operator moves the device and animal to another location. The basket arrangement should provide the operator with the options of keeping the captured animal concealed from the herd (during such transport), of exposing the captured animal to the herd but keeping the operator concealed, and of exposing both the animal and operator to the herd.